interdimensional travels with an oversized key
by Noswald
Summary: A self insert/eventual multicrossover fic with an original oc.
1. Chapter 1

Hello there and welcome to my kingdom hearts (self-insert/mutlicrossover) fanfic.

My name is we ll you know what my name is, it's displayed somewhere around here ain't it? Anyhoot, it's been some time since I wrote anything and the last time I did wrote something, it wasn't exactly the pinnacle of the written word either .

So criticism and pointers regarding my story would be highly appreciated, as are likes and other signs that you do enjoy reading this story it's the only thing that feeds my ego nowadays.

Oh right and kingdom hearts is the intellectual property of square enix and does not belong to me.

So without further dilly dallying here it is.

 **Interdimensional Travels With An Oversized Key**

Chapter 1

My day was not going quite as how I imagined it to be going. Being surrounded my what I first assumed were small children with pitch black skin was definitely not on my what-i-might-see-today list.

Defending an unconscious preteen boy from these small black children which I am beginning to think are not children in an abandoned building? Even more.

Now doing that with a key shaped blade that ultimately reminded me of one of my favourite games is probably the antithesis of the aforementioned list.

There were 2 possible explanations for this bizarre scene, both of which caused my stomach to feel like it was extremely crowded with butterflies with a few moths thrown into the mix.

Explanation 1, I've just interrupted an elaborate cosplay photo session and one of them is about to break out of character, come up to me and give me an earful of complaints prompting me to apologize and leave awkwardly.

Explanation 2, the universe, setting and logic of the popular JRPG series kingdom hearts was very much real.

One of the children just melted themselves into the floor.

Definitely explanation 2 then.

Oh boy, so let's do a quick introduction and recap that lead to these strange turn of events. Have to retain my sanity somehow.

My name? definitely remember that. My Age? 20 years old. My occupation? Suburban recluse who lives with his parents and has no end goals in life besides eating, sleeping and reading fiction.

My psyche still has enough sanity to make fun of myself that a good sign.

My parents have a very hands off approach when it comes to me deciding my future for myself that they put up with my unemployed-ness. Don't know if their tune would be different when I'm in the same when I'm in my thirties.

That doesn't mean I've been a total coach potatoe, well not until recently. Had a nice cushy job as a cashier at a store that sold 'art pieces', until the store went under few months ago.

Been job-hunting/resting ever since, of course I do my part around the house too. Case in point, this afternoon when I was on my walk home from grocery shopping which inadvertently lead to my strange encounter.

See there's this unfinished shop row building that I always pass by when I make a grocery run. Apparently the investors of the place abandoned it halfway through construction due to monetary problems or something.

Real shame too, the ground floor was all but done and the second floor is the complete opposite. A couple of exposed support beams and an incomplete walkway that was mostly plywood.

As it was recently abandoned, the place was usually quiet and empty like it was just part of the scenery.

So you could no doubt imagine my curiosity when I heard weird clanging sounds and flashes of light coming from the concrete building.

Like any normal individual my first instinct would have been to move away from the place as far as possible while gripping my groceries like I was holding on to it for dear life.

Then a huge ice spike came tumbling down from the second floor that instantly turned my line of thought from "Must get out of here, must avoid whatever that is" to "must see whatever weird thing made that"

I only got a few feet toward the place before the wooden walkway from the second floor, suddenly just dropped down with a loud crash. Building material wasn't the only thing that came down.

Among the debris was a green haired boy who wore an outfit of black boots, black cargo pants, a red sleeveless jacket over a silver coloured t-shirt and a red sash across his hip. His outfit was strange compared to my black hair, white polo shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals

Also clutched in his hands was a keyblade, although I didn't realize it as such immediately.

When the word keyblade comes up, I usually think of the oversized key with the yellow guard wielded by that scrawny kid in the games.

This kid's keyblade on the other hand had a very different design. It had pirate theme to it possessing a guard shaped like a sail ship's wheel, a curved blade not unlike a cutlass, and to top it all off it had a sideways anchor-like piece for the top of the keyblade.

I got momentarily distracted by the design of the thing before realizing I should check on its wielder. Leaving my groceries near one of the building's stairways.

Thankfully nothing had accidentally impaled him on the way down, still it must have hurt a lot regardless.

"Hey you alright kid?" I said whilst clearing away the pieces of broken plywood and pipes.

"Aurrgggh" a pained groan my only reply.

"Hold on let me get you out." What I should have done was called emergency services but panic does wonders for my logical reasoning.

I dragged him by the armpits towards the inside of one the empty shop spaces on the ground floor it provided some much appreciated shade from the afternoon sun.

I didn't realize till I set him down that he was still clutching on to his keyblade.

"Okay so what do I do now?" Emergency services damn it, oh that's right the panic.

As if right on cue, a group of 5 shadows came bumbling towards the entrance before stopping, their beady yellow eyes focused between me and the keyblade wielder.

"Hello…there?" awkwardly I asked.

They advance with one unified step, ominous despite the fact that each of them were shorter than my waist.

"You guys don't look too friendly" I tried not to think about the fact that their small claws may be able to shred my very soul.

Another step.

I looked at the kid's prone form, he's trying to pick himself up with one arm before collapsing flat on his face. He can probably get up soon but not soon enough before the little eldritch abominations dogpile us.

His keyblade laid at beside him, it look intimidating enough. "Could I scare them away?". That had a slim chance of happening, didn't stop me from trying.

"I'm borrowing this for a bit okay kid?" His face was still facing the floor so didn't know what response I got.

Quickly grabbing it, I pointed it in the shadows' direction.

"Stay back" I said because I didn't think "please go away" sent the right image.

One of them hissed at me and I most certainly didn't react by flinching.

So now we've come full circle, me defending an injured keyblade wielder with his keyblade against a group of tiny eldritch abominations. Sounded cool hypothetically, teeny bit terrifying in reality.

They've stop the one foot at a time routine, now one of them followed by another had melted to the floor while the rest started running towards us.

One of the trio had jumped towards me, I turned to the right to avoid it but it did get the chance to scratched my shoulder with its claws. It hurt but wasn't too damaging, I'll check on it later.

The heartless landed next to me and I swung at it anchor first. I'm not a very athletic person, but I was hoping the magical heartless killing powers of the keyblade would compensate for that.

Hitting these things felt weird, it was like hitting something denser than water but not completely solid either. The shadow was stunned by the blow which gave me enough time for a follow up swing to its face causing it to disintegrate.

Maybe this was easier than i- and they're splitting up.

The 2 solid ones were going for the wielder while the 2 flat shadows were nearly right under me. I rushed towards the solids ones, avoiding the claws of the other 2 that just resurfaced.

A downward strike on one destroyed it to my surprise, I gave the its pair a kick that sent it flying to the wall away from the kid.

Then I felt a sharp pain across my legs, I skipped forward and turned back to see the other 2 fully resurfaced. Sneaky little-

I rushed forward and swung at them in wide arcs. The shadows disintegrated after second strike.

That just left the one, which I can't seem to find, looking around and below just in case it did that floor melding thing. Could it have gotten outside? Finding easier prey? That's a chilling thought.

"Aaaah" I snapped my heard toward the sound.

It was the wielder who by now had turned himself over, the heartless was slowly emerging from its 2d form on the ceiling right above him.

I quickly ran up to them and held the blade up, the little heartless landed on the keyblade. Shaking it to the side, I managed to throw the heartless to a wall. In its brief daze, I walked up to it and stabbed its gut. It thrashed a bit before disintegrating.

It goes without saying I was a bit out of breath after that, even took a minute to fully process what just happened. The wound on my shoulder wasn't bleeding much, there's a little trickle of blood from my legs but it's nothing bleeding out more.

Also used the moment to calm my heart (the biological one not the it's-basically-my-soul heart) because right now it's beating faster than a fat child goes through chocolate.

"Excuse me Sir?" I turned to see that the kid was already up albeit visibly favouring his left side more than the other.

"Oh hey there kid you alright? You took a nasty fall" I moved closer in case he needed a hand standing up.

"Yes I'm fine-" He winced a little when taking a step forward "-ish"

"Okay"

I counted maybe 20 seconds of silence? I wasn't much of a conversationalist to be honest. I also took the moment to eyeball the kid, not scrawny and his height come up at around my chest. I guess he's a teen.

He was also eyeing his keyblade in my hand warily. "Sir is that….?"

"Oh sorry." I flustered "The shadow things were come at me, I mean us and I figured it could be…used…for…hitting….them." best explanation ever.

"I know, I saw you take on the heartless sir, thank you for protecting me sir." He bowed.

"You can stop it with the sirs kid, and it was no problem."

"Okay, but that was really brave of you."

Brave? maybe, desperate survival instinct? Most definitely.

"Yeah… brave, so how did you fall through the walkway anyway" I said looking at the wreckage.

"Oh that" He made an embarrassed smile "I was trying to do a leap strike on one of the heartless and didn't really see where I was leaping to, next thing I know I was on the floor."

"You really sure you're not hurting anywhere?"

"Don't worry about it, I can always use my keyblade to cast cure to heal myself with." He looked over my wounds. "and you too."

I really wonder if the kid realizes that he just openly revealed things about his keyblade, the heartless and his ability to cast magic to a non-keyblade wielder/ denizen of a world where magic didn't exist. Because it seems like a big no no for keyblade wielders in the games.

Then again I just saved him from some shadows, so maybe I was an exception?

"Speaking of which…."

"Right, sorry bout that" I said, presenting his keyblade back to him, feeling a small amount of disappointment.

"It's okay, look" he held up his good arm then suddenly a beam of yellow light flashed in his hands before it dissipated to reveal that the piratey keyblade was back with its owner.

"See it's-" suddenly his eyes bulged, what? Why? Was there another heartless behind me?

I quickly turned keyblade in hand- wait that's not right. The boy's keyblade was still with me. But that can't be, he summoned it back. I turned back and it's apparent that both of us have the same keyblade.

"Your-" his speech was cut short when the keyblade in my hand suddenly is engulfed in a beam of white light.

The light clears to reveal a new keyblade. It's guard was square shaped with brown tones, the blade looked like it was made of overlapping pieces of silvery white v shapped metal pieces with words engraved on each metal piece. The head for lack of a better term was basically a brown book expelling its white pages that wrapped around the tip of the blade so the book looked like it was hanging from the side. There was also the symbol for keyholes on both sides of the book.

It's design looked more gimmicky than functional, but it was my keyblade.

It's my keyblade.

I have a keyblade.

I'm a keyblade wielder.

I blacked out with the most goofy smile plastered on my face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 Dive, dive, dive.**

It was empty, dark, quiet and if I had to be honest? Very very cosy. That's how I would describe the endless void I find myself waking up to. Although, the moment my mind had actually register that I was in an empty void. I panicked and unpleasant speculations started running in my mind.

"Am I dead?" my eyes widening at the thought "Is this the afterlife? What if it's limbo instead? No wait I fought those heartless' and got hit, were the scratches worse than they looked? Did my heart get taken? Am I doomed to the realm of darkness?"

Those worries were instantly dispelled when I realized that I was slowly drifting downs towards a bright circle. It was mostly green.

The closer I got to it, the more I could make out. It was picture of something, a silhouette of a person in a laid back position holding something.

I got closer, the picture a detailed stain glass mural, depicting me holding a- my keyblade. Then all the metaphorical pieces fell into place.

"The dive to the heart" that's where I was, or what I'm doing. I remember now, in the first kingdom hearts game Sora went through this at the beginning of the game.

So I'm taking a tutorial, an overly dramatic session of what-your-keyblade-can-do 101. Speaking of which….

I held up my arm and flexed my arm a few times while thinking of my keyblade. Nothing, I suppose I'll have to do the tutorial first.

I'm not ungrateful about it, far from it. I'm just a bit worried how long it's gonna take, and how my body is doing in the outside world. Was time in here the same out there?

I finally landed on the ornate pillar, still thinking of my predicament.

My body is probably still in the abandoned shop building with the kid wielder, would he move my prone body somewhere safer or leave me there for the cops to find me?

Either way it's gonna be very hard to explain this to my parents. One doesn't say "I've been chosen by a magic key that lets me travel to different dimensions and kill manifestations of negative emotions." without sounding like a crazed lunatic.

Hmm, I should think on that later. Right now I've got to get these trials over with.

I took a closer look of my surroundings. The pillar's mural was of me in my current outfit and wielding my keyblade in one hand over a background of green overlapping circles. The 3 of smallest circles which I understand showed the people who were significant to me, depicted head portraits of my parents and the kid wielder, the rest were blank.

Atop of the pillar were 3 stone pedestals arranged in a triangle formation. Each held a different item, a steel sword with a yellow crossguard and blue handle, a green staff topped with a blue orb and a black shield with a red outline. I noted the lack of mickey mouse logos.

The choose one and drop one test.

Oddly enough there was no eerily informed instructions to guide me along, maybe because I already knew what's needed?

"Hmmm" this is gonna take a lot of consideration. Back in the game, this choice determined what sort of skills sora could learn at what level and character stats. But since this isn't the game, the choices might affect me in more radical ways.

Alright first, what would I gain from my choice?

The sword probably meant better martial prowess with a keyblade, hitting things harder, faster, and more skilful.

The staff might mean that my affinity for magic (which I can't wait to try) would be better, cast more spells and learn new ones faster.

The shield could mean I'd be sturdier, better at guarding maybe? I don't like getting hurt but it would be nice to know I wouldn't collapse after a big hit.

Okay now, what would I lose is I drop any of them in the worst case scenario?

Close quarters combat wouldn't be a good option for me if I drop the sword.

Dropping the staff? maybe I wouldn't be able to understand and use complex magic and I can't cast a lot without feeling drained.

Being shield-less would effectively make me a glass canon.

"Hmmmm"

I might have spent more time than needed to make my choices. Walking back and forth between the pedestals, reaching for one of the weapons before drawing back and rethinking the possibilities.

"Hmmmm" I hummed louder this time, my hands running through my hair in frustration. Why was this so hard?!

A while later, after a lot more walking, second guessing and hmmmmmm-ing I finally made my choice.

As to whether the choice would be detrimental or beneficial, well I'll figure it out later.

I approached the pedestal that held the sword and took it. The thing was half my height and weighed less than it appeared.

"I choose this." I said out loud.

Still no eerie instructions, that's a bit eerie in on its self.

Sword in hand, I approached the pedestal that held the staff and took it.

"I don't want this." I probably should have worded that differently, the last thing I want is to accidentally abandon the chance to use all magic.

The staff then scattered into motes of light.

A second later the floor shattered and dropped, taking the pedestals and me along with it.

I landed on my feet moments later on the same exact pillar as the last minus the pedestals. Was the shattering necessary?

Such a waste of a good pillar, even if the place was a projected construct in my heart.

The sword in my hand had changed into my keyblade at some point of the fall, it still looked cool. I even took a moment to examine it properly. It felt solid despite its book themed design and had some weight to it. In fact it was almost as heavy as the sword.

I was interrupted from my appraisal when the familiar shapes of shadow heartless' in their shadow form came into view. There were six of them, gathered in the middle of the platform.

They still haven't fully emerged yet so I took the initiative. I extended my arm, keyblade in hand and pointed it at the crowd of shadows. Time to test out the keyblade.

I chanted the simplest kingdom hearts spell I could think of…

"Fire"

There was no ball of fire that launched towards the shadows.

Panic is starting to set it, and the shadows have already fully formed.

I tried again, this time I really thought about a fireball being shot out of my keyblade-

"Fire"

-and was rewarded it a decent sized fireball that impacted on one of the shadows, reducing it to cinders.

Oh thank goodness, for a minute there I thought I couldn't do magic. So I had to imagine the spell more clearly huh.

My mind did feel a little tired right after the spell, then I felt normal again a few seconds later.

Maybe that was the cost of the spell, and a need to cooldown like in the games?

They've started coming after me, time to test the other spells I know.

"Blizzard" I chanted with the image of launching small chunks of ice out of my keyblade.

It hit, the shadow it targeted returned to nothingness.

I've started running away from them to make some distance for my spells, this was starting to be fun. Let's try a bigger spell.

I imagined a larger chunk of ice launching from my keyblade.

"Blizzara" I chanted, pointing my keyblade between 2 shadows.

The 2 heartless's tiny forms were helpless against the chair sized block of ice that came barrelling at them and subsequently destroyed them.

The mental fatigue for the blizzara spell was indeed greater than the blizzard spell, I shouldn't use it so freely.

Only 2 left, I decided to use the more physical of keyblade skills. I turned towards them, feet firmly on the ground, arm reeling back with my blade parallel to the ground and threw it at one of the shadows.

"Strike Raid"

The keyblade whirls like a saw towards the heartless, destroying it on contact before it whirled back to my outreached hand.

The last one had jumped at me, I lashed out with my keyblade in response. The blade struck it to the ground and I finished it with a fire spell.

The pillar was silent for a good few seconds.

"Are you not entertained?" I shouted out loud, my arms spread out wide. Followed by a single chuckle from myself

Course I felt silly, but it somehow felt right to do it.

And then the floor shattered again.

I'm on another new pillar with the exact same glass murals as the other 2.

Not heartless this time. Instead the pillar had a few odd things lying around, a barrel, a wooden chest, and a white transparent door. Not like it's a see through door, more like a hologram of door you can stick your hand through.

The chest was locked and shaking it yielded no sound usually associated with chest with things inside.

The barrel was very ordinary, hollow and empty like the chest.

Strange thing was, I didn't remember what I'm supposed to do here. I re member the other steps in the dive to the heart but not this part.

The door doesn't respond to anything, I tried using the keyblade to magically open it, it didn't work.

At least the chest responded to the keyblade opening it. I had my keyblade pointed at it and turned my wrist to the right whilst imagining the image of the chest opening.

It was empty like I expected.

I tried a few things on the barrels before it appeared that I had taken the right action to destroy it with the keyblade. Before that I rolled it over the edge of the pillar which resulted in a new barrel suddenly appearing at the initial spot, I also tried rolling it over the door, and tried lifting it into the chest.

Destroying the barrel and opening the chest had caused the door to turn tangible and I could open it.

The door after far as I could tell, opened up into a wall of white light. I waited a few moments before entering because I thought the floor was gonna shatter like usual, when it didn't I walked into the door of light.

And man was it bright.

I took a few steps into the place before the light dissipated. The area I had entered wasn't another pillar but it was some place I was very familiar with.

My home or at least a replication of it made in my heart. I was standing in the entry way, the door behind me looked my house's front door. It was locked. I would have tried using the keyblade to open it but it wasn't in my hands and I couldn't summon it here.

If I was right, then this was the stage where I had to answer three questions about myself to certain people. I wondered who I'm going to meet. My friends? My family? random strangers?

The answer was a third one as I met my first questioner in my living room sitting on the coach. My eyes went wide when I saw it.

Yes it.

What was sitting on my coach and giving me an uncomfortable stare was a giant anthropomorphic owl with gray feathers with light orange eyes and black beak. It also had wing hands instead of wing wings, did that make sense?

Pretty sure that description didn't make any sense, just like how this scene was.

Who the heck is it supposed to be! ?

"what is are you afraid of?" it asked in a low toned voice, so that might means it's a male?

Honestly, I really thought it would add a "hoo" sound somewhere in that sentence.

I really don't like these kinds questions, they're too general and cover a broad number of answers and you had to dig deep to find the right one. But I had to answer or else I'm gonna be stuck here so here goes-

"Being a burden to those I care about"

"Is that so? Hoo"

Ah hah! he said it.

Its eyes were still trailing me, I was starting to feel uncomfortable so I move on to the next person.

I walked to the dining room to see the keyblade wielder kid from before sitting at the table. I was relieved it wasn't another bizarre individual. Pulling up a chair, I sat down next to him.

He eyed me "what do you want outta life?"

"That's pretty deep kid."

His face remained stoic, tough crowd.

Another hard question, I didn't really the usual wants most people had. I didn't really want lots of money, perfect health, love or a dream job. well maybe getting another cushy job would be nice but this was those deep questions. And then it hit me, my answer was related to the person who asked it.

"I wanna see a lot of interesting things"

"I see"

Okay 2 down and 1 to go, I excused myself from the table to find the last person.

The last questioner was in the kitchen and she was pretty.

Was my heart sexist for putting her in a kitchen? God I hope not.

Anyway, she had a lean figure and wore a red jacket of sort with brown pants and red slippers. Her blonde hair was styled with a short pony tail.

The most notable feature were here pointy ears and eyes that were completely blue.

An elf?

Seriously who were they? Were they connected to the kid wielder?

Whatever I'll figure it out later. I've got a question to answer.

She stared at me and asked "what's most important to you?"

Of course the last question is the hardest. But thankfully I got to think about it during the first question.

"The bonds I have with those I care about."

"I understand"

Right after she said it, I shielded my eyes as the world went white.

I gradually put down my arms to see that I'm another pillar with another group of shadows slowly forming.

Advanced while summoning my keyblade and destroying the nearest shadow in 2 strikes.

I was being aggressive, I know that. But after the fight on the second pillar and knowing what I was capable of with the keyblade, I didn't feel afraid of these little guys anymore. Not like I was invincible, more like I knew I was more of threat to them than they are to me.

I weaved into their group and quickly chanted a spell, holding my keyblade up to reinforce the image of the spell.

"Zero Gravity"

All of the shadows lifted up from the ground, their small limbs trying to find a hold where there are none.

I'm not ashamed to say that I took advantage of the spell and struck them all down like pinatas. Shame there wasn't any candy.

No save point appeared after that like in the games, not like I was expecting it anyway. What did appear were the stairs made of glass that lead to the final pillar. The fight against a darkside heartless.

Gulp

Since there wasn't any eerie instructions to tell me to go immediately, I psyched myself a bit before going. Don't panic myself, your only gonna fight a giant shadow man nothing to panic about.

I also tried to remember as many kingdom hearts spells as possible, I probably won't use them all but it would good to have them on hand.

Even tried out some of the other RA level spells, but the mental fatigue and cooldown that came from using it was too significant. So I resolved to use the level one spells just to play it safe

When I was finally ready, I ascended the stairs.

Once I made it to the pillar (with no small amount of sweat on my head, wait I could sweat in here?), I made it to the centre of the floor.

I stood there keybade in hand, eyeing my surrounding, that's when I noticed my own shadow getting longer, and longer, and longer and longer.

Until it was as big as …well as a darkside. Its large black body easily towering over me by a few feet, it's broad chest lacked a significant section of itself namely the heart shaped hole, and it's face made me feel ill. The writhing tentacles completely covered all of its face, except for the spot around its yellow eyes.

And it was looking at me.

It was looking at me as i leveled my keyblade at its face.

It still looked at me when I shouted the words-

"Fire"

The fireball launched itself from my keyblade and exploded in the darkside's face. It didn't flinch, it merely raised its arm up to strike me.

I dashed to the right side of the pillar, hoping to avoid the hit. The darkside's fist plunged into the floor to my left. The result shockwave almost tripped me.

Turning back, I did a leap strike on the arm followed by a few regular swipes. The area around the stuck arm was started swirling with darkness.

I backed away just in time to see shadows start coming out of the dark swirl one by one. When the numbers reached three, the darkside removed his arm.

I'll need to get rid of those shadows first also note to self, next time the darkside plunges his arm attack both the arms and the shadows as they are surfacing. But first, these shadows.

I pointed the keyblade at the trio of shadows, adjusting my posture and holding the keyblade back whilst keeping it poised at the shadows.

"Sliding dash"

My body had a brief feeling of being pulled at high speeds as the keyblade rushed forward to strike a shadow, it disintegrated as the blade plunged into its head.

No time for spells. I made wide swings at the remaining shadows, destroying them both.

I turned back to see the darkside's hand's held at the sides of its heart hole, where dark energies where gathering.

"Blizzard"

I had hope that firing the chunks of ice at its hands would disrupt whatever attack it was preparing. The ice certainly did hit but the attack wasn't stopping. I'd better start running.

The giant heartless jerked back and the energies in its chest shot out in three large round bolts of energy, all of which were homing in on me.

I ran in different directions, trying to avoid the bolts which I succeed at.

However what I didn't know was the bolts could explode on impact, and my backside just so happened to be in the blast radius.

Tumbling to the ground, I desperately stood on my feet. The pain to my back felt like it had briefly touched the side of a heated pan. Excruciating? Yes but at least it's brief.

The darkside has its arm raised again, I ran to the side, its fist impacting where I had been a moment ago. I turned back again and attacked it normally, my back still too sore to do a leaping strike.

The darkness swirled and I kept an eye out for any shadows.

There behind me, I destroy it with one swing and resume my attack on the arm.

There to my left, I position myself and cut down the shadow and slash at the arm at the same time.

There to my left again, I do the same as before.

It pulls out its arm, I managed a few more blows before it's out of my reach.

"Fire" I shouted.

The ball of fire exploded in its face, still no flinching. The giant stood still and had started to gather energy again.

Which makes it's vulnerable to attacks.

I rush up to its leg and held my keyblade up

"Thunder"

The bolt struck, it didn't stop the giant heartless. More energy was gathering.

I bought up the keyblade above my hand with both hands and bought in down in an overhead diagonal slash to its legs.

Using the momentum of the last attack, I did another overhead diagonal slash followed by a stab.

It still wasn't stopping.

Once more I tried another-

"Thunder"

This time the thunder bolt was accompanied by the sound of something…. oozing?

I looked up to see that the darkside had stopped gathering energy and was melting, its dark material gradually disappearing.

I sat down, exhausted but smiling. I did it, I actually beat it hah.

…...

Why isn't the floor shattering yet? Or isn't some light supposed to appear out of nowhere and wake me up?

I looked around the pedestal, there's nothing else here besides me and the small puddle of darkness from the darkside melting.

…

Wait, why was it still here? Any heartless I destroy is supposed to disappear, so why was this still here?

I saw new movement in the puddle, instantly I readied my keyblade and moved towards the puddle.

Something started to form out of the puddle, the puddle reduced in size proportionate to the figure forming. It was a tall humanoid heartless, no antenna or claws though it looked kinda human.

My eyes widen

That's because it is, the shadow looks like me. I pointed my keyblade towards it readying myself for it to attack. Would it punch me bare handed? Maybe a kick? What if it summons a fake keyblade to completely mirror me? Or even summon a ball of darkness or something.?

No it did something even more surprising than all the above, it cowered. Arms held up to defend its self and squatted down.

Is this a trick? To make me drop my guard and taking the moment to strike?

No, heartless don't trick. They just follow the instinct to feed on hearts in the most simple of ways. Could this thing not be a heartless?

Then I remember how the fight started, with my shadow extending.

This could this thing, be my darkness?

Damn this complicates things.

On the one hand killing might lead me out of here, on the other hand who knows what crazy heart imbalance I might experience. On the other other hand, I have an aversion to kill things that look a lot like me.

Decisions decisions.

I think on it for a bit before finally deciding what to do.

If I'm wrong, then I've just guaranteed my own end.

"Hey" I said.

The dark me didn't move an inch.

"Stand up I'm not gonna end you." I still had the keyblade out as insurance though.

It took a while before the dark me stood up, posture still defensive.

"Listen, I know you want to continue existing-" no signs of an attack yet "-and I don't want to be consumed by darkness-" please don't attack suddenly "-so here's the deal."

Shadow me's posture loosens a bit, or maybe he's putting me in a false sense of security!

No, I've got to calm down.

"I don't end you and you continue living here-" I tapped to my chest with my free hand "-and in return you don't run wild here, I don't wanna wake up smelling like evil you know what I mean? Balance and all that"

I extended my free hand, in my other hand the keyblade was still poised to cast a fire spell if needed.

"So deal?"

Very slowly, shadow me extends his own hand and grabs mine. I seized the initiative and shook it.

Then the world was white.

So yeah I pulled an atlus on this chapter, what do you think?

Reviews and likes for my hungry ego please.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Mundane things**

There was good news and bad news.

The good news was that my unconscious body was moved away from abandoned building during my little dive to the heart and in doing so, avoided being involved with the group of onlookers that have gathered around the crash site. No doubt coming up with different guesses over what happened there.

The bad news was that I was propped sitting on a bench at the nearby playground the whole time I was out and if the current orange-gy colour of the sky was any indication it has been a long while.

The muscles were oh so very sore as I attempted to stand up and stretch myself.

Let's see here, wallet? Check, phone? Check, keyblade to prove that I wasn't hallucinating?

Better check it later, the playground wasn't exactly empty at the moment. No sign of the wielder kid either, did he ditch me here? Well at least I have him to thank for nothing still being at the building, being the centre of attention.

I turned on my phone, the time was 6pm.

Might as well head home, I could check on the keyblade in the safety of my room.

I was approximately 5 steps away from the bench before I had the strangest feeling I forgot something and approximately 10 steps later did I realize that my arms felt like they were lacking a certain weight that I was used to before all this happened.

The groceries!

It should be at one of the stairwells of the building, but with the amount of eyes on the place I couldn't come close to it without drawing attention.

Darn, nothing I could do now. Hopefully won't be anyone there at night when I go back to recover it. Now I just had to come up with a believable lie in case either mom or dad asks about it.

"Although that might backfire when I try to explain about the keyblade" I pondering while walking in the direction of home.

Maybe I could tell them the truth right at the get go? even telling them about my plan to travel different dimensions to …..to…..

Huh, I don't really have a plan do i?

I mean, in the games and the gratuitous amounts of fan fiction of said game, a keyblade wielder would travel to different dimensions, making friends, and killing whatever darkness oriented race there was for the sake of saving the worlds or someone from an evil magical douchebag.

Was there an evil magical douchebag slash Xehanort wannabe out there? I don't know, the kid would have known but he's long gone now.

Then again was there anything wrong with just travelling dimensions, making friends and sealing world keyholes from heartless just for the heck of it?

With any luck, the other worlds would be based on the fictional ones I know from tv, books and video games too.

Just thinking of the amount of weird and wondering things I'll see and possible characters I would meet fills me with so much excitement that's it's almost too hard to contain.

But would I survive?

There could be worlds filled with violence and conflict, I'm not confident I can go toe to toe with whatever goes for a trained combatant or smarter giant things that could systematically crush me like a bug.

What if it's a world that has an environment that's uninhabitable by normal humans or worse Microorganisms that are native to the place but lethal to my health or the other way around?

Then there was the matter of my livelihood, did the munny currency exist and does it drop from heartless'? Would all the other worlds use it? What if I end up scrounging just to get by or survive?

And on the off chance that I do die god forbid, how would I tell my family about it?

Great now I'm feeling less enthusiastic about running off on an interdimensional adventure. My reasons for going were suddenly being very outweighed by the potential dangers.

Really wished I had a guide for this.

…

No, it's still too early for me give up on an opportunity like this. Plus I don't even have a glider or gummi ship to get out of the world with.

I should take some time to learn my keyblade's capabilities first and improve my physical fitness. Maybe even learn a few survival techniques.

That settles it then. Training first, springing up my magic and dreams of travelling between dimensions later.

Scratch that, first lie about the groceries.

The door opened with a faint creak.

"I'm home."

"Welcome back." Mom said, her eyes not leaving the painting she was so focused on. Her latest creation, it depicted a woman in a dress swinging a golf club in a green field. The colourful golf ball shaped trees that I just noticed seem to be a new addition.

"You were gone longer than usual, did something happen?" She turned to the side to face me, her short black hair had flecks of paint in it again. Her eyes shifted in confusion when she saw that I had returned empty handed.

"I thought you went grocery shopping?"

"I did, but I met one of my old friend, Ethan from high school at the store." I made my way to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of juice.

I poured myself a cup whilst continuing my made-up story.

"He was buying stuff too and we then decided to hangout, we went to a café and played games at the arcade."

"Uh huh"

"So then he gets a call from little sister to pick her up at school so he had to leave, but he did offer me a ride back home since it was on the way. But then we got caught in a traffic jam and I could see Ethan getting antsy maybe because he wanted to pick up her sister as soon as possible."

"Uh huh"

"So I told him he could just drop me off nearby instead of directly home, I didn't wanna take up his time. He thanked me and dropped me off near our neighbourhood before speeding away."

"And you forgot the groceries in his car."

"…..yes" faking a little guilt should sell it. "I called him about and he said he can swing by at around 8 o clock to give it back."

"He can't come by sooner?"

"He said he was busy with family stuff."

"Okay, as long as you get those groceries back." She went back to her painting. "But don't make it habit."

"I won't."

And that kids, is how you make a believable lie.

"I'm gonna take a bath now, I've had a long day."

A muffled "okay" was all I got as acknowledgement.

I ascended the stairs up to my room in an orderly fashion, can't be too careful now can I? that also includes carefully shutting my door and the curtains in my room.

Once I was sure no one could see into my room, I summoned my keyblade. The familiar white glow quickly fades as it materializes.

Keyblade definitely check.

I did a few practice swings with it, the weight feels the same so that's good to know. I quickly dismiss it and went for my towel because despite the lie I told, I really did need to take a bath.

Stepping into the shower, I turned the water valves on. Turning 180° for cold water and 270° for hot water, causing the perfect temperature of water to cascade onto me.

Though the feeling of euphoria was swiftly accompanied by sharp pain. Stinging pain, near the area of my knees.

Oh right, the scratch.

I turned off the shower and wiped the area around the wound with my towel. It wasn't bleeding but it wasn't closed either, water on exposed flesh is never pleasant.

This is gonna take 2 maybe 3 days to fully heal, not doubt itching during all that time. The medicine I have at home could quicken the healing process.

I smiled.

Luckily for me I might have something that could fix this in a jiffy. Time to test out some magical healing.

I aimed my keyblade at the wounds, taking a moment to envision the spell. I needed the cuts to mend, stimulating cells to rapidly replicate around the area back to pristine condition.

Have to hold on to that image and…..

"Cure"

…..say the word to reinforce my idea of the spell.

Light green light spreads on my wound, it feels warm.

Still warm…

Still glowing…

…and done

That took some time, I counted maybe 15 seconds?

My fingers ran through the affected body part, it's closed, faint lines of new raw flesh taking its place. The spell wasn't so costly, I did still felt some minor mental fatigue even so it'll pass soon.

I resumed my shower.

That was awesome.

THIS IS NOT AWESOME, IT'S TEN TIMES THE OPPOSITE OF AWESOME.

After dressing myself, I decided to turn on my computer and peruse through the kingdoms hearts fan wiki page to refresh myself on all thing keyblade. You know spells, moves, history and the like.

Don't know if most of the information here was viable, still it might give me an idea on mastering it.

What had me stopped in my tracks and swearing silent profanities was one iddy bitty piece of information that I found the heartless page.

 _Heartless seek out the users of the keyblade_

I hope this part isn't true. I hope I didn't inadvertently lead a race of soul stealing demons to my doorstep and my parents.

I've gotta leave **now!** carry out the second part of the 'forgotten groceries' act and test out this theory. What's the time….

7:23pm perfect, the crowd at the abandoned shop building should be gone by now.

A change of clothes, down the stairs and I'm out the door, or so I thought…..

"Hi little melon, you going somewhere?"

Dad was home, sitting on the coach with his tie halfway down his buttoned shirt. His attention more on me than the news channel he had the tv tuned in on.

If you are wondering, no little melon is not my real name, I was a pudgy kid back in the day and mom and dad couldn't just let it go.

"Hi dad, you're home." I said.

"Yeah, where are you off to? dinner's almost ready" As evident by the sound of cooking I hear coming from the kitchen.

I glanced out the window for any tell tales signs of shadows.

"Oh I'm meeting up with a friend, I kinda forgot my groceries with him."

"Your mom told me about it, so is he coming here?"

"No I'm meeting him out near the end of the street."

"Why the end of the street?"

"He doesn't exactly know where our house is so I'm meeting up with him there since it's where he dropped me off in the first place."

Come on, buy the lie dad. Buy it.

"Can't you just give directions to him on the phone? It's dangerous to be out at night."

Darn he has a point. Think brain, what can I use as an excuse.

"Tried to, but he keeps getting lost for some reason."

"How can he keep getting lost? We're not a big neighbourhood."

Dad's parental concern is starting to feel like an interrogation.

"I dunno, so we decided it would be faster for me to just meet with him up there."

"It's still rude of him, come on I'll drive you there."

Don't come with me, I'm lying to you so you'll stay safe at home. Oh great, he's getting up from the coach.

"Just let me tell your moth-"

"No need."

He stared at me.

"I wanna take a quick jog, build up an appetite before dinner you know?"

Take the lie, take the lie, take the lie, take the lie.

"But you don't usually jog."

" Uhh, I found out how out of shape I was on the walk home? I thought I'd start the habit of jogging at night when there no heat from the sun."

Dad actually took a moment to consider that. He's buying it. Meanwhile, I almost froze when I saw 2 small yellow lights near the street only to realize it has the front lights of a car instead of a heartless.

"But at night?"

"It's just around the corner and I'll call if anything happens. Plus our neighbourhood is pretty safe."

"If you're sure."

"yes I'm sure dad, I'll be back in a bit."

His stare mellows out.

"Okay just be careful out there kiddo." He slowly heads back to the coach.

"I will"

I'm out the door, not dark silhouettes out. Huh, maybe they can't sense me if I don't have a keyblade out, wishful thinking.

I hope that's the case and started steadily made my way to the abandoned building. I started hearing faint clanging sounds again the closer I got to the building.

Is the kid fighting heartless there again? If there's more wreckage at the building, the police might start investigating it for real.

Only I was wrong, no one was fighting near the abandoned building. The sounds were actually coming further away.

I went to one of the stairwells, the one where I hid the groceries at. YES THEIR ALL STILL HERE, HALLELUJAH. For a second there I thought someone would have stolen them.

On to more pressing matters, I went up the stairs groceries in hand. I needed a better viewpoint to see where the sounds were coming from.

Blue light flashed in the distance, there I see them now.

They're in the playground, it's not just the kid who's fighting the heartless this time. a man and a woman were there too each holding a keyblade.

More wielders.

The heartless weren't all shadows either. There were these fast floating balls that zipped around the trio, occasionally getting destroyed by them.

I read about them on the wiki page, darkballs. They weren't much of a treat individually, but when do heartless not show up in groups?

Though the advantage of numbers was rendered redundant when 3 keyblade wielders were working together to clear them out. They were just about to finish the last one when I started heading down and towards the playground.

This is my chance. I need to talk to them, to know more of about keyblade and the heartless.

I practically ran the last few meters to the playground.

They had finished off the last one and were in the middle of the conversation. They already had their keyblades put away.

On closer inspection, the man appeared old, between the stages of middle age and elderly if I had to guess. His outfit consisted of a brown leather and cloth sleeveless top that exposed his well-toned arms, knee length light brown short and dark yellow flip flops.

The woman who was a blonde, wore a red long sleeved jacket that had intricate gold patterns around the vest. Long brown pants, and red slippers.

No pointy ears or completely blue eyes but I had a vague feeling that this women was the elf I met in my dive.

There was that time sora turned into a lion cub when he visited that lion king world. So maybe this was the same thing, magical turning into one of the native species of the world?

That could mean the old man could be the giant owl then.

The kid still looked the same, a human in both here and in my dive. So he could be human or a different human from another world.

I walked into their line of sight, the woman was the first to notice me and alert her comrades. She and the man eyed me with suspicion, while the boy looked more surprised than anything.

"That's the guy, hello again sir." He was back to calling me sir?

"Are you sure?" asked the old man.

"Yes master, that's him."

"Hey kid, you guys done defeating the heartless around here?"

"Yes sir."

"He knows about the heartless?" it's the woman who asked this time.

"Yes, I told you and master how he saved me by fighting them with my keyblade remember."

"That wasn't all you told us Damian." Said the old man.

"Right, he's got a keyblade too."

"Does he now?" her tone curious.

I cleared the lady's suspicions by summoning my keyblade in my non grocery holding hand, right in front of them. Both the old man and kid who I know is called Damian reacted with an ooooh. All three of them were examining the keyblade.

"I know this might be a big thing to you all but would you be so kind as to answer some of my questions?"

Snapped out of his dazed, the old man replied. "Ah yes I know this must be very confusing for you but first let me thank you for saving my apprentice's life."

He bowed at me and so did the other 2 wielders.

"No problem, it was an…. Interesting dilemma."

"My name is Gilan." He had his hand to his chest and then proceeded to point to the other 2. "the young woman there is Narine and this is my apprentice is Damian."

Narine and Damian gave a hand wave and a smile respectively.

Then Gilan stared at me, just stared….

…..

….

Why aren't they saying anything?

….

It's like he's waiting for… oh OH. How embarrassing of me.

"My name is-"

…

And that's all folks. Apologizes for those who were hoping for some action scenes in this chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey there folks sorry for the slow update, I do hope you enjoy this and as always please like or comment on this to feed My pathetic ego

 **Chapter 4 Exposition by any other name**

"-Nate, Nate Oswald." I said. Dismissing my keyblade at the same time.

The older keyblade wielder found a sit on one the nearby benches, while Narine and Damian stood by his left and right respectively.

"Well Mr Oswald, to answer your question I must ask you one first." Gilan assumed a serious like posture. "Do you believe in other worlds?"

Should have figured he'd asked that first. Still a bit vague though.

"You can just call me Nate and What do you mean by that?" Gilan looked ready to answer that but I wasn't finish.

"i know it must be-"

"Did you mean other planets, realities or alternate dimensions? Either way, I do kinda believe it." even if I only did start fully believing in it this afternoon .

Damian was surpised while Gilan raised his brow to that,

it was Narine who replied first. "Your world knows of different worlds?"

"We don't really know _know_ about it, its more of a theory." A theory that's been explored in fiction. That reminds me, should I tell them of the kingdom hearts game? What if they already know? Or even had a hand in it.

Narine smiled at that and her tone carried a hint of amusement. "That theory holds more truth than your people know."

"I see… well that makes thing a bit easier." Gilan continued "now these worlds each as different as the next, under normal circumstances the residents of these worlds are isolated from one another, each separated by a vast ocean of stars"

I hmm-ed in agreement, I'm probably gonna be doing that a lot during his little explanation here.

"The One thing that the different worlds have in common is that they each possess something akin to a core or heart whichever you prefer, these hearts are imperative to a survival of a world less they falls into darkness." He raised up his palm. "I will explain more on falling to darkness later but make no mistake, that is a horrible outcome for any world."

"The blight that causes such disaster are the heartless, the pitch black creatures you've faced when protecting young Damian."

I set my sights on the boy, he shot a smile and a nod.

"They feed on the hearts of both the world and its denizens, mercilessly so. Those individuals unlucky enough to have their hearts taken become heartless themselves. They can be destroyed by conventional means however that only delays the inevitable as they would reform later."

Gilan held his arm up in front of him.

"The only way to truly destroy the heartless and save a world would be to use this."

His keyblade materialized in a flash of light green. Being up close and personal this time, I managed to get a more detailed look at his keyblade. A square grey coloured guard connect to a shaft that looks like swirls? No wait I think its more of a tornado motif, each swirl stacked on top of each other and gradually changing colour from green at the bottom to blue on the top. The teeth consisted of 2 overlapping warped blue lines that curled away from each other.

"A keyblade, a powerful weapon capable of permanently destroying the heartless and many other wonders." He dismissed it soon after finishing that sentence. "One of which is that it is capable of locking a world's keyhole to it's heart, in doing it denies the heartless of a world's heart their ultimate prize."

Narine spoke next. "In addition, the most of the heartless would migrate from the locked world in hopes of finding other world hearts."

"That it correct and that is exactly the kind of weapon that has bonded to you as its wielder. A weapon capable of saving worlds so to speak. I hope that answers your first question."

My expression turned contemplative, that was a pretty brief yet exact summary of the kingdom hearts universe. Except the bit where the heartless go to other worlds once a keyhole is sealed, as far as the games go the heartless just stick around on a world even after its keyhole gets sealed though it was probably so the players still had enemies to grind on.

I still got a lot more questions to ask. The most important being…

"Any chance that the heartsless are attracted to keyblades? I mean the only places I've see these things pop out from are near you people and my…dreams." I decided not to tell them about my dive to the heart in case it wasn't the case for every new keyblade wielder.

"Dreams?" asked Narine.

"I had it right after I blacked out from saving Damian, I can't remember much about it except that there were a few of those small heartless at some point."

Narine stroked her chin. "I don't know much about your dream although you are correct to assume that the heartless are drawn to our keyblades, very astute of you."

Crap was that suspicion or genuine praise? Its so hard to tell.

"It only draws the heartless that are on the world we currently on and they actively gather to it only if we materialize it for long periods of time."

Narine's explanation was like a load of my back, nice to know I wouldn't have to be on guard for heartless all the time.

Suddenly the phone in my pocket buzzed, alerting me of a text from dad.

"i've gotta answer this, could you guys wait a moment?"

"by all means." Gilan replied.

I unlocked my phone to reply the text.

 ** _have you met you friend yet? Are you on your way home?_**

 ** _With friend and groceries now, we're having a little chat, will be back soon._** I typed, it wasn't a total lie.

I waited for a bit before receiving dad's reply

 ** _Ok don't take to long, dinner is ready._**

 ** _Sure, You and mom can start without me._** With that sent I placed the phone back into my pocket. "Alright now that's settled, so from what you've told me you guys are here to seal my world keyhole?"

Narine explained "We were and we have succeeded in doing so a few days ago, we decided to stay for a while to experience your world and destroy any leftover heartless in secret of course."

"Not a very well keep secret as the events of this afternoon." I added

"Yes" Gilan said, straining the words in the process. His eyes made a side glance at Damian who had been mostly silent this whole time. "we would appreciate it if you kept this a secret from the rest of your world, if they were to find out the results would be… problematic."

"Perhaps bothersome would be the right world Master Gilan."

The both of them are right, I can already imagine the ramifications. Goverments would capture us for study, the media would hound us our every waking moment not to mention the cults or fanatics that might spring up.

That's all just no fun for me.

"i get it, but I might have to explain it to some people mostly family."

Gilan gave a nod. "fair enough, anything else?"

"Are there more of you? Other Keyblade wielders I mean and how do you get around?"

I heard a faint chuckle from Narine. "the keyblade has chosen quite the curious one this time."

"There are others, I don't know how many of us there are exactly but I do personally know a few and contact them from time to time. As for how we get around well that's a trade secret, one which I cannot divulge at this time. "

"I see," I said hiding the fact that I was a little disappointed by the last part. "one last question."

With feelings of mild excitement I asked. "since I have a keyblade now, what do I do?" I know what I _could_ do but would like to know all my options.

Gilan actually took some time to figure a response, taking a bit to discuss it with Narine and Damian in private. Before saying..

"You have 2 choices young Nate," With those words alone I could already imagine what he was gonna say, its one of the oldest cliches in the book for crying out loud.

"The first is you pretend that the things that happened this afternoon never happened, pretend you don't have a keyblade and live a normal life by the standards of your world."

"We even have a memory charm that could help you with that." the female wielder added.

"The second is that you train under a keyblade master, learn all you can from them and travel the worlds slaying heartless, seeing fantastic sights that you would never have imagined. But be warned, taking this path might expose you to terrible dangers as well."

At least he's up front about the dangers part.

"And you will train me?"

"i could do that, normally an apprentice would train under the master who bestowed them the gift of the keyblade in the first place. However young Damian here is a fresh apprentice himself so he wouldn't be able to teach you much."

Damian shrugged in my direction. "Sorry sir."

"No offense taken Damian," I turned back to his master. "So as his master, does that mean you be responsible for training me?"

"Again I could do that but-" Gilan gestured to a smirking Narine.

"I volunteered to train you."

Oh the pretty might-be-elf woman's gonna train me? Sweet…wait no bad Nate, she's gonna be your master respect her. No fantasizing.

My train of thought come to stop to listen to what Gilan had more to say.

"Narine my former apprentice has recently earned the title of keyblade master and has expressed that she would like to take you on as an apprentice."

"Why's that miss Narine?" I faced my prospective master.

"I always wanted to take on an apprentice, never did find another new keyblade wielder. But that will only happen if you choose to the second choice."

This is great, I've already thought this through at home, true there were many unpleasant possibilities if I went solo. But if I actually had someone to teach me the way of a real keyblade wielder, then that changes everything.

"You will tell us of your decision in a week's time." Gilan suddenly spouted.

"Huh?" i was genuinely flabbergasted "To be honest I've come to a decision all ready."

He took on a more serious authoritarian tone with me "I am aware of your decision from the tell tale look in your eyes young Nate, but as I had said before the path of a keyblade wielder holds terrible dangers and sometimes one might wish to go back to the life they had previously."

Is he insinuating that I can't take the pressure for it? That I have less nerve than that kid Damian who by the way I risked my life to save from a group of shadows?

I'm a little hurt if not annoyed.

Luckily Narine interjected him. "What Master Gilan is trying to say is, you should take the week to seriously reexamine your life both the one you have now and the one you will have if you decide to train with me across different worlds and if your decision is still a yes then at least you've known you were a 100% sure of it."

Huh that actually made a bit of sense and my track record with split decisions weren't great…mostly.

"Alright i'm fine with that, how would I find you guys once the week is up?"

Narine took a quick look around before spreading her arms apart. "We could back at this spot when the week is up, you'll only be meeting me seeing as I'm going to be your master and all."

I stared back at Gilan and Damian. "You guys going somewhere?"

"Yes we'll be leaving this world in a day or two, it's about time I resumed young Damian's training on another world, this place is not ideal for what I have planned it's too crowded."

I was curios about what he does have planned that not suitable to be done here before the word magic came to mind.

"I understand."

The grey haired keyblade master stood up "Good, now it's about time we departed for the motel and leave young Nate to his week of pondering." He turned to me and gave a slight bow "Good luck on whichever choice you choose young Nate."

Damian came up to me and held out his hand for a handshake which I reciprocated . "It was nice to meet you sir and what the master said as well good luck." the kid flashing me a toothy grin before moving to his master's side.

"Thanks you two."

Narine though, she made her way to me. "Master Gilan, can you and Damian head back first? there's something else I want to tell my potential apprentice."

"Will it take long?"

"Not much, I'll be back shorty."

"Very well." With that said, both Gilan and Damian slowly walked away from the park.

It was pretty underwhelming, could have sworn they were gonna do something magical like teleporting.

Oh well back to matter at hand.

"Now Nate there's one thing I want you to try doing during you time deciding what to do, think of it as a small taste of the training you would experience under me."

This was either a way to discourage me from being a full fledged keyblade wielder or a way to test my mettle. Whichever the case I was excited to see what it was.

Narine proceeded to summon her own keyblade, it had a yellow circular guard with sides that didn't connect to the pommel leaving 2 small spaces. The shaft resembled a aquamarine shaded long sword with dark silver outlines crisscrossing across the blade. Finally the bit consisted of a semi-circle piece of yellow metal with 4 spikes arranged on it's exposed side.

It's also might have been the most lethal looking keyblade I've seen so far and it was pointed right at me.

"I'm going to focus my light into your shirt, concentrate on what you feel from it."

Then a bright white orb started to glow from the tip of her keyblade, the orb didn't move but I could feel warmth radiating over my torso. My shirt was starting to glow too and it somehow felt heavier? Weird.

A minute later and glowing stopped, Narine had dismissed her keyblade as well and didn't look the slightest bit worse for wear to boot.

"Feel any different?"

"I got this faint warm feeling from my shirt and something else it's hard to describe maybe secure? Or like I'm wearing more material than the shirt actually is ." as I said that I did a brief look over on my shirt.

"That's the usual response yes, what I did to you was enchant your shirt with my light. It's a mandatory spell we keyblade wielders use on our clothing to shield ourselves from the darkness when we travel between worlds."

Travel? Holy crap, does that mean that spell functioned similar to keyblade armour or the black coats?

"Though we wear more than a simple shirt while traveling worlds, so here is my task for you. I want you to assemble an outfit that covers you completely from head to toe and try to enchant that outfit with your own light. All you have to do is concentrate with your keyblade and will some of your light into the outfit, just enough for it to feel like how your shirt feels now."

"2 things I should mention about the spell, first the duration that the spell is effective is dependent on the amount of light it has stored and second the amount of light a piece of clothing can store is dependent on the integrity of the clothing material. Any questions?"

As cool as an honest to god magical lesson is, one potentially fatal factor was on the front of my mind.

"I'm probably gonna take a long time to get it, won't I be attracting the heartless to whatever place I'm doing this?"

"You won't if you have this." Narine held out her hand again, only this time there was no keyblade that appeared following the flash of light. Instead there were 4 small white pyramid shaped pieces that had strange symbols engraved on each side.

"Activate these by whispering the words 'hide me' directly at the pieces, you'll know their activate if the runes start shifting into other symbols. Then place them on the 4 corners of a room to set up the barrier." She said while handing the pieces. "As long as the barrier is active, the heartless won't be able to sense the presence of the keyblade inside."

"Really?"

"Really"

Well that's certainly convenient. "Will it work in any room size?"

"I recommend you use a smaller room for these, they'll last longer."

"No big rooms got it." I fiddled with the pieces before storing them in my pocket. "Is there else… Master Narine?"

She flashed me a smile "No that will be all Nate. I do believe that I must go now, I'll see you in 7 days," She started walk toward the playground entrance . "Good luck." she said whilst waving back at me.

"See you later Master Narine." I waved back

I proceeded to make my way home as well with groceries in hand. All the while, my mind was busy thinking of clothes I'll put together that would eventually be my travel outfit through the sea of stars.

That was assuming I could enchant them all just like that.

How hard could it be right?

Right?

* * *

My writing style feels pretty different when lots of dialogues is involved

Thanks for reading.


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